Friday fun: 1000th comment (and a look back)

Ta-da! We have our 1000th comment! And yes, that does include my comments. I try to have a conversation with people in the comments when feasible. It makes the experience more fun for everyone. By my count, I'm responsible for about 266 of those comments, leaving about 734 from my excellent readers who really help make this site what it is and give me a reason to keep doing it. Make that 737 from the readers as we are actually at 1003 as I write this.

So who was #1000? It was Spencer, who has been commenting on the blog since the early days (his first comment was in April 2005) and has contributed to the discussion 80 times, or roughly 8% of all the comments here. (PGL of Angry Bear narrowly beats him out with a total of 86 comments, including the 8th comment the blog ever received back in January 2005.) Thanks, guys, for keeping me honest.

In honor of the 1000th comment, I thought I'd dig through the archives and recall some of my favorite comments. In some cases I'll just post the first sentence to two (which is usually the best part). Go read the whole thing if you care to. We've had a lot of long passionate debates over the last couple years, but some of my favorites were from posts where I didn't expect much, or at least I didn't expect what I got.

So here they are, in reverse chronological order:

Well there's a difference between liquidity which is water and that which is sewage. Perhaps what we need is an effort to clean up this liquidity, rather than keeping it circulating. Dumping more water into the sewage isn't really helping much. --Donna on this post about the recent liquidity issues

Wow. There must be some sort of market-friendly radiation coming out of Minnesota U. --Gabriel upon hearing that ticket scalping is now legal in Minnesota

Polley

I'm the guy from the other blog who said he wouldn't read this if you paid me.

But you sounded like such a nice guy i felt a owed you a look. --Coberly on a post that turned into a discussion on the rewards to education

I knew who it was right away. Love the commercial, love his voice!!!! --Heather, who is apparently a George Clooney fan

Polley is making some very good points and I find myself attracted to his analysis.

On the other hand... --Spencer on this post about free markets

Welcome to the Helicopter Patrol. --Stephen Karlson welcoming me to the ranks of judges for the high school Fed Challenge

Someone once pointed out to me that the existence of boring numbers can be disproven by contradiction. If there were a set of boring numbers, that set would include a "least boring number", which would therefore have an interesting property and thus not belong in the set. --knzn waxing philosophical in response to this post about the number 23

After interviewing recruits at the ASSA meetings, I really have to ask "What IS macroeconomics these days?" --John Palmer (aka EclectEcon) responding to this post and expressing a thought that a number of people have communicated to me as well

Off-topic. What's with all the silence? It's December. Time for a new post! ;-) --Gabriel, annoyed that I took a few days off...funny because of this post of his

Paper cuts. Absolutely deadly.... --Ironman upon hearing that J.K. Rowling was stopped by airport security for carrying on her Harry Potter manuscript

Since it agrees with my analysis I have to say good analysis. --Spencer proves that we agree once in a while

Yep - I was a Happy Bear this morning. AB may have to pull the plug on my posting! --pgl, giddy with excitement over February 2006 job growth

Yes, but he no longer has a boss that does not want good answers. --Spencer on Ben Bernanke's move from the CEA to the Fed

BTW, the real expense of popcorn is probably cleaning up after it. --Lord on the reason popcorn is so expensive at the movies

I had noticed the same pattern on my blog, but wondered why. Your story makes sense. --The Unknown Professor on all of the hits we get from ".edu" addresses when term papers are due. (John Palmer noticed it too.)

Oh, goody. Screw up a universally understood and accepted human interface. Just jolly. --Donna, who was unimpressed with smart elevators

Brilliant! --Calculated Risk with this blog's only one word comment so far. Here's the post. You be the judge.

And hey! Who is that guy in the suit and tie? That is a long way from the photo at the "economic geyser" in Yellowstone! --Calculated Risk again, noticing from my picture on the Econoblog that I do clean up well (I may be in a jacket and tie, but it was just a head shot...I was wearing jeans.) The Yellowstone photo is here, if you haven't seen it.

the ten year is under inflation?! aye carumba! --c. I guess that sort of speaks for itself.

Ice Cream. Mmmmmmmm.... --pgl again. Read the post and the comment, and smile.

Krauthammer nailed it. Your sophistry doesn't change that. --Brian on this post from the early days...you are not compelled to agree with the host

Well, that's the highlight reel. I hope you've enjoyed some of these blasts from the past. I hope that they brought a smile to your face because I'm just sitting here grinning from ear to ear thinking about what a fun ride this has been so far.

My readers share in the success of the blog. Comments are always welcome. We've already started on the next thousand.

And soon we'll be coming up on 1000 posts. I'll have another highlight reel then as well. Have a good weekend.